New Delhi, March 18 (H.S.)The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to consider the demand for publishing actual voting figures within 48 hours. A bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna has asked the petitioners, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, to present their case before the Election Commission within ten days. The next hearing in this matter will take place on July 28.

This petition was filed in May 2024 during the Lok Sabha elections. The petition states that the Election Commission is taking too long to publish the voting figures for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, creating concerns about significant discrepancies in the data. It is mentioned in the petition that the Election Commission published the data several days later for the current Lok Sabha elections. The first phase of polling took place on April 19, and its figures were published after 11 days. The second phase of polling was on April 26, and its figures were published after 4 days.

The petition claims that there was a discrepancy of more than 5 percent between the preliminary figures released by the Election Commission on the polling days and the final figures. The delay from the Election Commission in releasing the actual figures leads to doubts among voters. Therefore, it is requested that the Election Commission be instructed to publish the voting figures immediately after the polling.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar